2014 RAM 2500 CB Installation complete

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jadocs

jadocs

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Watch out... next thing you will be doing is contacting XForce amps and picking up a 4 pill to push with the President. Then you will be using the 4 pill to drive an 8 or 10 pill amp while trying to figure out how to add a couple 200A alternators to power it all. And then you think you need a base at the house as well but there you end up running 2 antennas. The first is a 10 element beam on a massive antenna turner and the other a 24ft groundplane for local chatter. This of course is all driven by a RCI 2995 that has been peaked, tuned, converted and has the power supply upgraded as well. This drives about 250 watts into an 8 pill base amp putting out a touch north of 2 kw. But this is just to drive the 220 vac powered broadcast steel triad tube amp that you try and tell everyone that it's a couple hundred watts but is hovering around 12kw and dimms the lights in the neighborhood as well as turns on touchlamps in every house for 5 square miles.

Just do me a favor... when this happens don't get digital echo, sound effects, and keep your damn roger beep off!

Sent directly from my thoughts using tinfoil antennas and a stainless mixing bowl helmet.


X-Force you say? Lol
0c83781fdc85f3b2fc06cd02dad21b96.jpg

Your absolutely right man. No echo or roger beep for me (even though the radio has it built in). I prefer full modulation. Noise toys are ***. Right again about wanting a base station lol
 
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Hemi Ram

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X-Force you say? Lol
0c83781fdc85f3b2fc06cd02dad21b96.jpg

Your absolutely right man. No echo or roger beep for me (even though the radio has it built in). I prefer full modulation. Noise toys are ***. Right again about wanting a base station lol



Oh no... It's too late. Hahaha...

The smallest amp I run right now is a straight 6 pill 2879 box in my truck. It has SSB and a remote switch box. I drive that with a RCI 2970 N2. Radio has been peaked, tuned and converted. Radio has a speach processor installed so I run the OE mic with the controls on it. Works real well with my Wilson 5000.
BTW... I don't know what kind of power someone was running to get a magnet mount to discolor the top of that truck but I would have to think it was a crap antenna without a loading coil. I have had some serious amps in my truck in the past and I can pull my magnet mount and there's nothing there.

I'll have to check out that President you run. I used to have an old president hr2510 that I sold years ago. Love to the radio but it was always a little buggy.

Sent directly from my thoughts using tinfoil antennas and a stainless mixing bowl helmet.
 
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jadocs

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Got my Amp tuned and installed a MFJ/822 Watt/SWR meter inline (center cubby) so I can tune my RF Power to dead key exactly 3 watts before I use the Amp. Radio will dead key about 12 watts with the RF Power turned all the way up and it will kill the Amp if I don't turn it down before I use it. After the Amp tune my input and output SWRs are now flat across the board once again. This thing is booming now.
a9fe568bd0e8012912ec91336e67fbc6.jpg
Close up of the meter:
17a78e7678cf30c8977a3b5f23ac42c6.jpg
 
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SilverStreak88

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Looks like your set-up to just troll around and listen everybody. I like the set-up, but it's a little much for my liking. I think the headliner speakers would've been the best way instead of screwing **** into your dash.
 

SPDKLZ

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I started following and then dropped off for a bit. I see you have made several changes.

That being said and to sort out my confusion, what exactly are you using now in regards to radio, coax, mount and antenna? I like the idea of adding speakers to the headliner so I will go that route as I don't want a box mounted on my dash.

How tall is your antenna? I am concerned about going in and out of my arch driveway. Is the antenna easily removable if I leave the base? Any such thing as a low profile antenna that still gets good reach?
 
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jadocs

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Looks like your set-up to just troll around and listen everybody. I like the set-up, but it's a little much for my liking. I think the headliner speakers would've been the best way instead of screwing **** into your dash.


The speaker is secured using existing holes. I didn't drill my dash at all. There are a couple issues that need to be considered when using external speakers. If they are not matched to radio output (I forget the technical term since its been a while since I did this) it will sound like crap. So you are pretty much limited to speakers made for CB. Plus I couldn't find any speaker grills that matched what was already in the headliner. No luck trying to get them from the dealership either. I think mismatched speaker grills would look worse in the headliner. If I couldn't do it right, I wasn't going to do it at all. I wasn't about to cut two holes in my headliner for something that did not look factory.
 
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jadocs

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I started following and then dropped off for a bit. I see you have made several changes.



That being said and to sort out my confusion, what exactly are you using now in regards to radio, coax, mount and antenna? I like the idea of adding speakers to the headliner so I will go that route as I don't want a box mounted on my dash.



How tall is your antenna? I am concerned about going in and out of my arch driveway. Is the antenna easily removable if I leave the base? Any such thing as a low profile antenna that still gets good reach?


Coax: Times Microwave LMR-240 Ultra Flex
Antenna: Sirio Performer 5000
Antenna Mount: Breedlove

The antenna is foldable. If you go back a few posts you should see a lever on the side. You just twist it and it folds down...or you can unscrew the lever completely and remove the antenna.

I forget how tall the antenna is but it is longer than the Wilson. For some reason 72" is stuck in my mind, but I could be recalling in error. (It blows the Wilson away in terms of performance).
 

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I am going to bring this back from the dead. I see you spent a lot of time and money on this project and I'm curious where you are now with it. I understand about 2% of whats going on here. My only expierence with CB's is that I had a Radio Shack one in my Ford Ranger as we used it to communicate with each other off road. I recently was thinking of maybe putting a small setup in my truck now as I kind of miss the trucker chatter on my way to work. Then I remembered how crazy this old technology is and people still go nuts with it.

What do you recommend for a cheap setup? I'm not looking to go crazy like this, maybe hear conversation from a few miles, and talk that far too. From what i remember fighting interference was chore number 1.Do I need an amp and all this fancy stuff to have something nice? Is there a plug and play option available now?
 
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jadocs

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I am going to bring this back from the dead. I see you spent a lot of time and money on this project and I'm curious where you are now with it. I understand about 2% of whats going on here. My only expierence with CB's is that I had a Radio Shack one in my Ford Ranger as we used it to communicate with each other off road. I recently was thinking of maybe putting a small setup in my truck now as I kind of miss the trucker chatter on my way to work. Then I remembered how crazy this old technology is and people still go nuts with it.

What do you recommend for a cheap setup? I'm not looking to go crazy like this, maybe hear conversation from a few miles, and talk that far too. From what i remember fighting interference was chore number 1.Do I need an amp and all this fancy stuff to have something nice? Is there a plug and play option available now?



For what you want to do, a good basic radio like the Cobra 25 and a Wilson 1000 mag mount antenna (see my first post in this thread) will be just fine. No amp needed. You will still need to tune the antenna (as you would on any new setup).
 

Jmhm17

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For what you want to do, a good basic radio like the Cobra 25 and a Wilson 1000 mag mount antenna (see my first post in this thread) will be just fine. No amp needed. You will still need to tune the antenna (as you would on any new setup).

Thanks for replying!

Any other recommendations on antennas? Im not really a fan of the whip style antennas. I have a toolbox I could mount something to, what about a firestik?
 
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jadocs

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Thanks for replying!



Any other recommendations on antennas? Im not really a fan of the whip style antennas. I have a toolbox I could mount something to, what about a firestik?



You could do that but you will get much better performance with the antenna on the roof. If you don't mount on the roof...the rule of thumb is to have 2/3 of the antenna above your roofline.
 

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Good info. Hmm.. that leaves out the bad ass look of a firestik then.. I just think roof mounts are ugly (no offence).

Also, what about the Cobra 29? its a little cheaper than the 25..
 
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Good info. Hmm.. that leaves out the bad ass look of a firestik then.. I just think roof mounts are ugly (no offence).

Also, what about the Cobra 29? its a little cheaper than the 25..



Cobra 29 would work just fine. You can still mount a firestick back there, but there will be trade off in performance. The higher you can get the antenna the better.
 

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Read this post with great interest. Funnily enough found it via Google search even though i post in the gen 4 1500 forums often. Wonder if the coax around the back window then through the back sewt grommet into cab will work on a 1500 QC. I've got my cb and mag mount arriving shortly.

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Finished pics. Lowering the headliner is not a quick job if you have never done it before. I took my time and it was totally worth it. After lowering the headliner it became clear that there was only one small area between the roof supports to mount the antenna. I was using a mount that had a large surface area to further ensure the roof wouldn't buckle with the weight of the antenna at highway speeds. You've heard the saying that your radio is only as good as your antenna and coax? Well it's true, I'll be damned if my radio isn't louder and clearer.

Antenna Mount: Breedlove SO-239 (#179).

Antenna: Sirio 5000 Performer.

Coax: Times Microwave LMR-240 with heavy duty 3/16" ring lugs.

e3dd862aeb43d74d822bfd9c9321f936.jpgcd315a65e9d71f81f18068cbd7ef7d1d.jpg

I haven't even tuned the antenna yet and my SWR is.

Channel 1: basically a flat 1, maybe a hair over.

Channel 20: 1.15

Channel 40: 1.3



Do you have any pics of the install??


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jadocs

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Read this post with great interest. Funnily enough found it via Google search even though i post in the gen 4 1500 forums often. Wonder if the coax around the back window then through the back sewt grommet into cab will work on a 1500 QC. I've got my cb and mag mount arriving shortly.

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Should work fine, I just didn't like the temporary look of a cable being routed on the outside.

Do you have any pics of the install??


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Sorry no I don't.
 

AFMoulton

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Sorry no I don't.


No worries. I'm looking to install a 2m/70cm antenna on mine that I can expand to a HF set up later. What size Mount did you get?? Also where at on the roof is this? Under dome light?




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jadocs

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I think I got the large puck. You'd have to see what sizes are on the Breedlove website.

My internal lights are to the front and rear no dome light in the middle. If you do have a center dome light you should be able to remove it and do the install without removing the headliner (you will still need to fish the coax using a coat hanger to an A or B pillar though.
 

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Just read this thread a second time . The CB bug has caught up with me after many decades, I had only a few days ago bought a uniden 505 and tram 705 center mount, already sent them​ back for a cobra 29lx and wilson 1000 magmount on roof.

The radio is temp connected to the 12v cig socket and I intend to route it to battery directly after I finalize location of CB unit ( does it make that much of a difference real world terms?). What linear amp would work with my setup, don't need anything more than 100W , concerned about overcharging the linear with the CB 4W? Finally, you all just connect all these items directly to battery via inline fuse or some sort of junction box? Im assuming the 100W linear wont work of cig socket even if soldered.

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